The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in India is going to launch two mobile apps – e-Challan (‘Challan’ is an official form or document, such as a receipt, invoice, or summons and here it would include traffic tickets issued by the police for violations) and m-Parivahan (m-Transport) during Road Safety Week (9th-15th January).
The apps will be integrated with the software platforms, Vahan (the word means Vehicle) and Sarathi (the word means Driver). Vahan facilitates the collection of data regarding vehicle Registration, Fitness, Taxes, Permits & Enforcement from Road Transport Offices (RTOs), District Transport Officers (DTOs), Motor Licencing Officers (MLOs) and Sub-divisional magistrates across the country. The data initially goes to the State Registers, flowing to the National Register subsequently. Sarathi performs a similar function for information related to driving licences (DLs). A government website states that 100% automation of 1000+ RTOs has been achieved and data from 196 million Vehicle records and 92 million Licence records are available in the consolidated central repository.
Vahan and Sarathi have a centralized, web-enabled architecture with single database and application for the whole country, accessible over internet for RTO users through secured log-in and authentication.
m-parivahan is meant for use by citizens and it will provide virtual driving licence and registration certificate through back end connection to the Transport National Register. If a vehicle number is entered into the app, complete details of the car and its owner, including driving licence and registration certificate. Registration through Aadhar ((a 12 digit unique identity number linked to a citizen’s basic demographic and biometric information) based OTP will be enabled.
Citizens can also report accidents and traffic violations by clicking pictures and reporting to traffic authorities in states and to RTOs, anonymously if they wish to do so.
E-challan will be used by traffic authorities and it would change the way traffic violations are charged and fined. Payments can be made online. It is expected to improve transparency and ease of operations and enable efficient monitoring through digitization of records.
Versions of e-challan have been launched and are being used or piloted in the states of Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and cities of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Lucknow, Delhi and Mumbai . Implementations have involved traffic police using handheld devices to issue tickets and printing them out via bluetooth printers.
During the Road Safety Week, the Ministry also plans to extend the Highway Advisory System (HAS), launched last year as a pilot project on the Delhi-Jaipur highway. HAS is a free-to-air information distribution system that uses radio to make the travelling experience on National Highways safer, faster and hassle-free. HAS control centre collects data, processes and analyzes it, generates alerts and sends it to be broadcast by All India Radio. Now its use will be extended to 12 national highways covering 13 states and 2400 km.
Read the press release here.
Photo by Pratapkagitha/ CC BY-SA 4.0